Monday, 21 November 2011

Driving the Dragoons

The plan, sometimes we do actually
have a plan, was to follow Middlemarch Road, drive out to Council Rocks and
then drive over the pass into the next valley.

We didn’t get to Council Rocks.The forest road didn’t look too bad but turned
out to be much rougher than on our last trip, although last time we were in a
much smaller SUV.So in order to save BT’s
nice shiny paintwork from being scratched to smithereens we turned around and
bounced our way back to Middlemarch Road where we continued our drive up and
over the pass.

Partway along Middlemarch Road
showing approximately where the road goes over the pass.

As it climbs to the head of the pass
Middlemarch Road turns into a narrow, curvy, mountain grade road before
descending into Sulphur Springs Valley.

There were some interesting rock
formations along the way, although at one point we did wonder where the space
ship was!

Almost at the top of the pass

Sulphur Springs Valley and the
Chiricahua Mountains from the top of the pass.

We passed the dead end road leading
to Soren Pass, but decided that was probably not a road for us and continued on
down the mountain towards Pearce.

Not far now.

We enjoyed our drive over
Middlemarch Road, but were glad we didn’t meet anyone coming the other way as
there aren’t many passing places.

I don’t know if this is true or not
but we were once told that Middlemarch Road was so named because it was the
middle point on the march between Fort Bowie and Fort Huachuca.